Exhibition: A Darkness More Than Night, QUAD Gallery, Derby, until January 29 2012

An ultra-cool winter show for Derby's big screen-loving Quad (a cinema is built into the venue) as the irresistible allure of sharp suited, bowler-hatted figures blowing smoke rings from the shadows draws a heavy, seductive silhouette across the main gallery.

Noir is usually linked with the stylish Hollywood crime capers of the 1940s and 1950s, but curators Rosie Cooper and Ariella Yedgar have taken what they term a "forensic" approach to exploring the aesthetics and mood of the movement, inviting the likes of Mike Cooter – who has been known to make mini-thrillers of his own given a few hours with a film camera – to respond to its calling alongside a billboard full of artists from as far afield as the US and Germany.

The opening featured cocktails, projections of 1920s jazz clubs and DJs who had composed the swish music to video games inspired by noir, illustrating the wide influence of a genre liable to leave you wishing you lived in your own black and white soundtrack.